01:840:211 Lecture Notes - Lecture 20: Gautama Buddha, Dharma, Arhat
Document Summary
Preserve the teachings of gotama buddha in the pali canon. The p li canon is the only complete buddhist canon which survives in a classical indian language, p li, which serves as both sacred language and lingua franca of therav da buddhism. Those motivated by the wish for individual nirv a, who attain arhatship (i. e. therav da. Buddhas are thought to perish and appear in the world only at certain historical moments to reinstate the dharma (pali, dhamma) after it has disappeared. In therav da buddhism, gotama"s s sana is thought to exist in the world for only 5000 years, after which time it will completely disappear. The dhamma will appear again in the world when the next buddha, metteyya, appears in hundreds of thousands of years from now. The immediate aim for the vast majority of theravada buddhists in history was not.
